Furthest legal distance you can travel to a mot test centre?

[Jimmy1596]

Hi all, i am collecting a 318is hopefully on saturday, it has no mot at present i was just wondering is there a limit to the distance you can travel legally to an mot test centre? I can't be doing with hassle from the Po po, cheers folks

[gmf_uk]

i think your ment to take it to the Nearest Test Station for the MOT, although i have travelled over 150 miles to get to one then when it failed drove it home, then back to the test station after i sorted the faults, i never got stopped, but id think it will depend on the attutide of the police man at the time, just make sure your all insured etc etc and the car is legal, and that your defo booked in for the test.

[Nobby_N]

No legal limit as long as long as its booked in at the MOT centre you say it is, obviously the car has to have tax and insurance to make it legal to drive! Thats my understanding anyway and what i would tell the police cun tstable if they stopped me!

[DanThe]

Ive booked cars in when collecting before, the tester always tells me it wont stand up and it should be a station within 'reasonable distance' ie 100 odd miles up the motorway is taking the pee pee

[magpie]

Ive booked cars in when collecting before, the tester always tells me it wont stand up and it should be a station within 'reasonable distance' ie 100 odd miles up the motorway is taking the pee pee

exactly this,normal travel distance would be up to 25 miles i'd guess .

i tried it and the garage wouldn't book the car in after i told them i'd be bringing the car 120 miles from where i bought it.

[hennabm]

No legal limit as long as long as its booked in at the MOT centre you say it is, obviously the car has to have tax and insurance to make it legal to drive! Thats my understanding anyway and what i would tell the police cun tstable if they stopped me!

Correct

[Brianmoooore]

The law says what the law says, and not what it should say or what it was intended to say. There is no limit stated, so the answer is "as far as you like".

[Low_E30]

No legal limit as long as long as its booked in at the MOT centre you say it is, obviously the car has to have tax and insurance to make it legal to drive! Thats my understanding anyway and what i would tell the police cun tstable if they stopped me!

As far as I am aware, if your car is booked in with an MOT station AND has valid insurance, you can drive your car to the station.... Dont need tax on the way there, but if the car passes you will need to purchase it for the way back (to make life easier) or if it fails, get it trailered back.

The issue with tax obviously arises when one needs a valid MOT AND insurance to get the Road Tax, whereas you dont need an MOT or Tax to get insurance and at the same time you dont need Tax and insurance to get an MOT....

[pacerpete]

The police are wise to scum buying untaxed untested landfill at one end of the country and booking it in for an MOT 200 miles away near their final destination as a means of transporting the car a long distance with no tax or test. If pulled, don't expect the line " but my mates on the internet said I was covered, innit" to get you far !

[Duke137]

Any turds I have bought I just pay to have them recovered. My bro bought one last week taxed until the end of the month, no MOT... Did the same, had it recovered.

It WILL cost you more in the long run if you get caught and on a long distance the chances of triggering an ANPR are high. You are a fool to yourself if you try to beat the system as Pacer says, they know what goes on.

I wouldn't consider buying a car that has no T&T if I couldn't afford the recovery on top of the purchase price

I'll put a firm bet down that in the event of a shunt on the trip home your insurance won't want to know....

[stew72]

also check the terms of your insurance. It's not uncommon for no MOT to mean you're not insured.

[greg124]

Insurance company's will use any excuse to try and weedle out of paying out, and you bet your sweet ass that driving without an MOT will be near the top of their list.

While driving to a pre-booked MOT in a car without a current MOT is strictly legal in itself (providing the car meets certain criteria), if doing so invalidates you're insurance, then it is not.

[snakebrain]

While driving to a pre-booked MOT in a car without a current MOT is strictly legal in itself (providing the car meets certain criteria), if doing so invalidates you're insurance, then it is not.

Very good point. Car must be taxed and insured, so if your insurance cover isn't valid, you're buggered.

I'd be interested to know what an insurer would say if you phoned up and said I need to drive my taxed but out of MOT car to the MOT station, am I covered? Presumably they'd have to give you an answer one way or the other, and of the answer is always no, then it's not possible to ever drive a car to an MOT station, it would always have to be trailered..

[Brianmoooore]

The police are wise to scum buying untaxed untested landfill at one end of the country and booking it in for an MOT 200 miles away near their final destination as a means of transporting the car a long distance with no tax or test. (

It's very probable that the police are, but they are there to enforce the law, not write or interpret it.
The law makes no restriction on distance, and also allows the car to be driven home from the test centre or to a 'place of repair'.

[harry_p]

I'd be interested to know what an insurer would say if you phoned up and said I need to drive my taxed but out of MOT car to the MOT station, am I covered? Presumably they'd have to give you an answer one way or the other, and of the answer is always no, then it's not possible to ever drive a car to an MOT station, it would always have to be trailered..

i have never seen an insurance certificate or handbook state that the car must have an mot to be covered. they usually use the 'must be in roadworthy condition' term, and of course, that's what the mot test is there for, but a valid mot test is not absolute proof that a vehicle is 'roadworthy' nor does not having an mot automatically mean a car is unroadworthy.

[Brianmoooore]

they usually use the 'must be in roadworthy condition' term, and of course, that's what the mot test is there for, but a valid mot test is not absolute proof that a vehicle is 'roadworthy' nor does not having an mot automatically mean a car is unroadworthy.

This also applies to driving the car to an MOT test centre, etc. The car must be in a roadworthy condition for you to drive it there, and you will not be able to drive it home from the centre or to a place of repair if the MOT tester finds it to be unroadworthy.

[snakebrain]

The car must be in a roadworthy condition for you to drive it there, and you will not be able to drive it home from the centre or to a place of repair if the MOT tester finds it to be unroadworthy.

How then could you show your car was roadworthy in the absence of an MOT certificate?

[Brianmoooore]

An MOT certificate isn't evidence of a roadworthy car from the moment you enter a public road after leaving the test station, and a car can meet every requirement of a MOT test and still be 'unroadworty' at the time.
You have to make your own assessment of whether a car is roadworthy every time you drive it.

[snakebrain]

An MOT certificate isn't evidence of a roadworthy car from the moment you enter a public road after leaving the test station, and a car can meet every requirement of a MOT test and still be 'unroadworty' at the time.
You have to make your own assessment of whether a car is roadworthy every time you drive it.

I get your point, but I'm thinking of whether you could prove that to an insurer who was refusing to acknowledge that the car was covered in the hypothetical scenario of driving to a distant MOT centre and being involved in a accident (which for the sake of clarity, we'll assume to be the other driver's fault).

If the wording they use is 'roadworthy', would they have to disprove the car was roadworthy, or would you have to prove it?

[greg124]

An MOT certificate says that tht car met all the requirements of the test at the time of the test. It may not meet all the 'construction and use' requirements at the time of the test, and it does not say your car is roadworthy during the period that the MOT certificate is valid.
But it is a legal requirement, and absence of one is an excuse for the police to pull you over.

If the police decided that, regardless of whether you have a valid MOT, that you're car was unroadworthy you may have to pay an independant automotive engineer to prove otherwise.

[Green]

I got pulled over with no MOT or tax when I was taking my car to a test station. I had it still insured and explained I was just driving it to a pre booked MOT for the next day and they issued me a producer.

Turned up at the local nick a few days later with my insurance, license and failure sheet and sent back on my way to get on with my life.


If you're unsure how your insurance will react to you having an accident whilst taking your un-MOT'd car to the garage then sort the MOT out a Month in advance, safest thing to do.
If you want to be legal all you need is insurance whilst taking it to a test station. As for distance although there is not defined limit I'm sure anything further then a few miles out of town may be down the the officers discretion.

[g-e30]

I'm a moter and as long as its booked in ur good to go anywhere..so if u get stopped as long as u can call the station and have them say yes it's booked it or even for them to go to the station and see its booked in..the other day a customer came from south sea to London (2hour drive with no mot) for a mot who has been coming to us for over 20 years..you don't need tax because u need a mot to get tax but u need to be insured to drive on the road..also the chance of being stopped I'd say is low depending on what roads u take

[Jimmy1596]

Cheers for your input guys, i was also wondering whats happens if the car fails, as i've took bikes to be MOTed in the past which have failed and i have rode them home, do cars differ in this respest? it's not one of those where either the garage fixes it or has to be trailered/towed away does it? cheers

[Green]

I believe once it has failed it can then be driven but only to the place you're storing it or where you want the work done to pass it. Then it has to be rebooked in again when you take it back.

In the eyes of the law I doubt very much they would think anything more if you got tugged with not MOT with the fail sheet in the car for that date on the way to your home other then you've taken the car to a test and it's failed.

[sag]

I believe once it has failed it can then be driven but only to the place you're storing it or where you want the work done to pass it. Then it has to be rebooked in again when you take it back.

In the eyes of the law I doubt very much they would think anything more if you got tugged with not MOT with the fail sheet in the car for that date on the way to your home other then you've taken the car to a test and it's failed.

Spot on. The only Problem I see is if the tester fails the car and marks it as being DANGEROUS. As a tester if we deem the failure to be be dangerous, we are within are right to a certain extent to hold on to the car and prevent the car leaving the station.

It all depends on the customer if he his being very persuasive and intent on taking is car, then we have to give the car back to him. But we make make him fully aware that's it illegal to drive
the car on the road and the car will need to trailed to home or to a workshop and his insurance would be invalid as soon as drives on the road

Rember that is only a problem if the fail item was ticked as
being DANGEROUS. If the item was a normal failure the customer is in his right to drive the car to there place of repairs and the drive the car back for a pre booked retest

To the OP there is no requirement on the distance for a pre booked MOT as far as I'm aware but I'll check it out once I get to work. But it's your duty as a driver, before you drive the car is to check tyres,lights, levels and pressures

[hennabm]

The Motor Vehicle Test Regulations state;

(2) Pursuant to section 44(6) the Secretary of State hereby exempts from section 44(1) the use of a vehicle””

(a)(i)for the purpose of submitting it by previous arrangement for, or bringing it away from, an examination, or .

(ii)in the course of an examination, for the purpose of taking it to, or bringing it away from, any place where a part of the examination is to be or, as the case may be, has been, carried out, or of carrying out any part of the examination, the person so using it being either”” .
(A)an examiner, or a Ministry Inspector or an inspector appointed by a designated council, or .
(B)a person acting under the personal direction of an examiner, a Ministry Inspector or a designated Council, or .
(iii)where a test certificate is refused on an examination”” .
(A)for the purpose of delivering it by previous arrangement at, or bringing it away from, a place where work is to be or has been done on it to remedy for a further examination the defects on the ground of which the test certificate was refused; or .
(B)for the purpose of deivering it, by towing it, to a place where the vehicle is to be broken up;

[domkolo]

just drive infront of the bloke that takes you to collect it, if you stay close together, the policeman will end up driving behind your mate and not you, therefore you plate will not be checked. that's how we do in poland bro!

[Shutthatdoor]

just drive infront of the bloke that takes you to collect it, if you stay close together, the policeman will end up driving behind your mate and not you, therefore you plate will not be checked. that's how we do in poland bro!

Running the gauntlet - done that many a time too